1,000 miles!

Today I reached (and surpassed) my goal of 1,000 miles for the year. Judging by the fact that it's only October, I've been getting in more miles than I originally thought - which is great. I am excited now to be donating twice as much per mile, and I still have time to raise some more with certain race goals - most notably, the Philly marathon.

My training has been going well. I feel strong, have been avoiding injury, and my mileage total and the pace of my runs is better than ever. Inevitably, my mind is starting to wander. If I can run an average 8:30 pace for 20 miles, then maybe in a race I could do 8:15? 8:00? What if I had trained harder? That's where I get even more ahead of myself - and the idea that once seemed so incredibly impossible, starts to enter my mind...could I qualify for Boston?

I would need to run a marathon at a 7:15/mi pace. That's lightning fast (for me). I could MAYBE run 10 miles at that pace right now, but that would be on a great day, all things going my way. I think that I can get to that point, if I keep up with my training and keep improving year over year.

At the same time, the possibility of having a slower time in Philly scares me, a lot. What if I get so tired I need to walk? What about cramps? The only time I ran a marathon shooting for a specific time, I was on pace until the cramps hit me on mile 14. That made for a long finishing 12 miles. I remember how that felt, and with all the walking, I had a lot of time to think. It's discouraging to train for so long and hard, only to not even come close to your goal. I think I could run a time in Philly similar to the goal I had that year, but will I be disappointed if I don't?

The way I look at it, is I'll set various goals - not all time based. I really want to have fun, but I am also getting the urge to push myself more and more, and really run faster. I think the faster times will come with time, so even if I improve my times by a minute or two year after year, that's something! The more I run and the more I race, the more I love it. I hope that passion doesn't fade, and getting too caught up with time oriented goals could lead to that. I'll push myself, and if things go well - great. If not, well there's always another race.